Yet someone like that was bound to have an all-too-predictably pragmatic view of love.
Was Paintbrush not good enough?
For a young heir who had grown up amid scheming and intrigue, someone as devoted as Paintbrush was truly a wonderful match.
She was reasonably pretty, too, and capable in every respect.
After all, she had risen entirely through her own efforts to become a senior manager of an enormous guild like Black-and-White Road—its chief administrator in all but name.
Ink Pen's courtesy toward her had not been because of her sincere pursuit of him... Of course, her wholehearted devotion had led him to give her a little more trust, but he had never intended to accept her advances, so he certainly would not lower his standards for her.
At most, among people of equal ability, he would first choose Paintbrush, who was more genuinely devoted to him.
And the attitude of the Heaven-Defying Alliance's female managers toward Paintbrush during that time—proud women like Old School Striking King and Cunlü—also proved that her abilities were enough to put her on equal footing with them.
So, aside from her family background, Paintbrush was absolutely the best girl Eden's young heir Ivan could have met... and one of the rare women who truly loved him, at that.
Yet to Ivan, without family background, she had nothing.
A passionate romance that made them both happy was fine, but walking down the aisle with Paintbrush?
Absolutely impossible.
He was not some man without ambition who only wanted to live off an annuity.
Originally, if he could have led Eden to establish a foothold in this game... not necessarily completely suppressing the country on the other side, but merely securing a decent amount of room to survive and turning Eden into a major power that dominated